Facts

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When the store opens a year from now, it will employ about 250 mostly full-time workers.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. designates this store as a small Supercenter, featuring a full grocery with deli, fresh meat and produce, plus a general merchandise section.

Compared with Wal-Mart Stores' original plan, announced in June, the main change was to move the front of the building forward so it is a bit more central to the site.

The original proposal would have left only 100 feet behind the store, which is where trucks will load and unload.

“After some discussions with the neighbors and our staff, they actually moved the building an additional 53 feet from the property line and put some of the employee parking in the back,” said chief city planner Courtney Mendez.

Wal-Mart Stores also will use some of the space behind the store, meaning on the south side, for the creation of a storm-water retention pond and for landscaping to separate the store from the residential area.

In her staff recommendation for approval, Mendez also noted that: “The applicant has made reasonable effort to take what is essentially a large box and provide windows, awnings, decorative columns and color variations that break the building into more pedestrian scaled sections.”

Neighboring residents, accustomed to using the side entrance to the shopping center as a walkway to Payne Park, asked city planners to provide a pedestrian walkway as part of the plan, either through the Walmart parking lot or along the southern edge of the property, which will be the back of the Walmart.

The planning department, which has the final say in the matter, decided not to require a sidewalk.

“There will still be the driveway there,” said Mendez. But right now there are no plans for any formal sidewalk there.”

She added that Wal-Mart could, at its own discretion, add a sidewalk through to School Avenue without changing the site plan on the 9.7-acre site.

Wal-Mart plans to demolish the existing buildings on the site to make way for its building.

<p><em>SARASOTA</em> - City planners Wednesday evening approved a plan by the Wal-Mart company to build a 98,000-square-foot Supercenter on the Ringling Shopping Center site, where Publix exited a year ago.</p><p>When the store opens a year from now, it will employ about 250 mostly full-time workers.</p><p>Wal-Mart Stores Inc. designates this store as a small Supercenter, featuring a full grocery with deli, fresh meat and produce, plus a general merchandise section.</p><p>Compared with Wal-Mart Stores' original plan, announced in June, the main change was to move the front of the building forward so it is a bit more central to the site.</p><p>The original proposal would have left only 100 feet behind the store, which is where trucks will load and unload. </p><p>“After some discussions with the neighbors and our staff, they actually moved the building an additional 53 feet from the property line and put some of the employee parking in the back,” said chief city planner Courtney Mendez.</p><p>Wal-Mart Stores also will use some of the space behind the store, meaning on the south side, for the creation of a storm-water retention pond and for landscaping to separate the store from the residential area.</p><p><A HREF="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/517630-walmart-on-ringling-city-report.html" target="_blank">In her staff recommendation for approval</a>, Mendez also noted that: “The applicant has made reasonable effort to take what is essentially a large box and provide windows, awnings, decorative columns and color variations that break the building into more pedestrian scaled sections.”</p><p>Neighboring residents, accustomed to using the side entrance to the shopping center as a walkway to Payne Park, asked city planners to provide a pedestrian walkway as part of the plan, either through the Walmart parking lot or along the southern edge of the property, which will be the back of the Walmart.</p><p>The planning department, which has the final say in the matter, decided not to require a sidewalk.</p><p>“There will still be the driveway there,” said Mendez. But right now there are no plans for any formal sidewalk there.”</p><p>She added that Wal-Mart could, at its own discretion, add a sidewalk through to School Avenue without changing the site plan on the 9.7-acre site.</p><p>Wal-Mart plans to demolish the existing buildings on the site to make way for its building.</p>